Summer word search

Long days, warm nights and no school: the summer theme is made of beach trips, backyard barbecues and vacations. Pack the sunscreen, sunglasses and flip-flops, build a sandcastle, grab a lemonade or an ice pop, and stay up late for the fireworks and the fireflies.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the summer solstice falls on June 20 or 21 and is the longest day of the year; in Australia, New Zealand and the rest of the Southern Hemisphere, summer runs through December, January and February instead. Fireflies glow through a chemical reaction that gives off almost no heat, and a watermelon is about 92 percent water, which makes it a natural snack for a hot afternoon.

Summer is a good time to keep reading and spelling skills fresh. Print a few puzzles for a road trip or a rainy afternoon at the cabin, or make a habit of the daily puzzle, which brings back this theme now and then from June to August.

Play tip: eight words start with SUN: SUNSHINE, SUNSCREEN, SUNGLASSES, SUNBURN, SUNSET, SUNFLOWER, SUNDRESS and SUNBATHE. When the list has more than one of them, find the S-U-N first and then check which ending follows.